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THE HEART OF THE JEDIthrough the opening. Troopers and crewmen could only scramble forshelter behind equipment and control consoles.Still, fired by final desperation, they mounted a spiritedresistance from there. A wild and deadly melee erupted on the bridgeas the attackers poured in, spreading out to e ngage. The trappedImperials fought on doggedly, throwing up a blinding wall of fire.Great numbers of their blaster bolts struck home on the invadingenemy.Many combatants fell on both sides. Bodies scorched and limbssevered by the energy blasts were strewn thickly across the pebbledmetal floor. Errant shots struck controls, equipment, monitors, andmachines, raising explosions of sparks and fire.Through the chaos moved the Imperial captain, evading blastershots and falling men, crawling behind the sh elter of his commandconsole and crouching there. Beside him, the young commandercrouched too, but rising at times to fire his hand blaster out at theirenemies.For a time there seemed to be stalemate.Then the one in black wielding the blade of light mo ved outfrom the rest. He advanced into the center of the room with seemingrecklessness, parrying blaster fire to strike out at the stubborndefenders with ruthless efficiency.No defense could stop him. No shot could reach him. In a fewbloody moments only a handful of Imperials was left.The commander lifted up to try for a shot, but was hit by one ofthe attackers. He crumpled, dropping his blaster. His captain saw theweapon, seized it, and rose into view.15

STAR WARSHalfway across the bridge deck from him stood the figure withthe blade of light. Warrior and captain saw each other at the sametime.“Surrender!” the black-clad one called to him. The captain drewhimself up proudly, defiantly.“To you?” he spat back contemptuously. “Never!”His hand swung the blaster up to point and he opened fire,His hasty first shot went wide of the dark figure, but it didstrike a blue-uniformed one moving up behind. The blast hit his chestsquare on, its force lifting the soldier and slamming him down.Before the captain could fire again, the black-clad one hurledhis glowing sabre forward.It flew swiftly, with a rolling hum of sound as it spun end -overend, flashing to its goal so fast that the captain hadn ’t even time toflinch.It struck with a bright flare of power, the bla de of lightslashing down through the man from shoulder blade to heart. Hissmoking corpse toppled limply to the deck.A great stillness fell suddenly upon the bridge.The battle was ended, the last defenders down. The victorsstood weltering amidst the awful wreckage of sprawled bodies andblasted controls.The black-uniformed man strode forward, his boots on themetal deck clanking loud in the quiet. He bent down over the deadcaptain’s body to take up the glowing weapon that lay beside it.For a long moment the warrior stood motionless, the lethalblade of light in hand, looking much a figure of great and terriblepower there, surrounded by the sparks and smoke and dead of thathellish room.16

THE HEART OF THE JEDIThen he turned, swinging around toward the group of hisfellow warriors who stood watching him.With a “snap” the blade of light went off, shrinking in aninstant into its metal hilt. The hands of the warrior lifted toward hishead. They grasped his helmet, lifting it free of the head that had beenshielded beneath.The features revealed were those of Luke Skywalker.17

CHAPTER2Skywalker’s face, though still youthful, seemed prematurelyaged by the lines of frustration and regret which now etched it. Hetossed the helmet down angrily and spoke to t he others in a voicefilled with sorrow:“Why couldn’t they just surrender?”A small member of the blue-clad party which had accompaniedhim onto the battle bridge stepped toward him . Slinging its blasterrifle, it lifted hands to remove its own helmet, re vealing the stillgirlish and deceptively innocent face of Princess Le ia Organa. Free ofthe hampering cover, she spoke out to her brother.“You know we had no choice, Luke,” she told him in her steady,practical way. “It’s just that more Imperials are trying to stand theirground. We gave them every chance. They just refused. ”The figure behind her now removed its helmet too, exposing therugged but good-natured face of Han Solo. He offered assurance in hisown, breezy manner. “Hey, come on kid. We couldn’t let ‘em go! Theirfleet’s still disorganized. We can’t waste a shot at getting every shipwe can, even a slug like this one!”About them, the other members of the boarding company werenow doffing their own helmets and setting about starting clean -upoperations on the bridge. Luke, looking around himself again, seemedunconvinced. He shook his head and sighed.“I don’t know, Han,” he said in a weary tone. “It just seemslike like such a waste. I’ve even lost count of how many I’ve had tokill these past few days.”Leia walked to Luke’s side. She lifted a hand to rest upon hisarm and looked up searchingly into his face. A shadow of his owndistress swept across his sister’s features.

THE HEART OF THE JEDI“I understand, Luke,” she said soothingly. “I feel the pain inyou. It’s not so different from my own.”Solo stepped up behind her.“Well, hell, nobody likes doing this,” he offered in a bluff,defensive way, “I’m getting kind of sick of it myself. But, if you reallywant to get this over with.,” he shrugged, “.what else can you do?”The others on the bridge were by this time busily engaged inchecking over bodies, collecting weapons, seeing to wounded, puttingout fires, and accessing damage to the controls. One of them left therest to approach Han.“General Solo,” he addressed the other smartly, “shipoperations are now under our control.”Solo turned around to him.“Think she’ll fly, Captain?” he asked.The man shrugged. “We’ll have to get damage reports on theengines first.”“Well, get on it then,” Solo ordered. “We can’t hang around hereforever. No telling what other Imperial stuff’s cruising in this sector.”The man gave a salute and moved away, only to be replaced byanother, towering figure who entered the bridge and strode toward thethree.The shaggy massive, shaggy being that approached was theWookiee Chewbacca. His appearance there broke the silent bond ofcommiseration that had held between Luke and Le ia. Both they andHan turned to greet their friend.“Chewie!” said Han. “Got the rest of the ship secured okay?”The Wookiee growled and grunted out a short speech. Hanlistened in some puzzlement, then translated:“A message? Now? From base?”19

STAR WARSChewie growled out some more. Han listened again, thenturned to Leia.“Guess it’s a Priority One call, Princess. For you.”Leia released Luke’s arm. At this she was swiftly all briskbusiness again. “Can we take it here?”“Yeah.” Han called out to the other men, “Hey, where’s thecomm panel?”One of the men gestured to a bank of controls. Han led the waythere, carelessly hauled the body of a dead Imperial off the console,and punched a sequence of buttons on the board.A screen above the console flickered to life. Han punched morebuttons, and soon the image of a grey-bearded man wavered into clearview. His voice came to them as he apparently saw them too. Hesounded relieved.“Ah, Princess Leia. We’ve been trying to reach you for somewhile. We feared something had happened.”“We were in the midst of a battle, Commodore Nuran, ” sheexplained. “What is it?”“No need for any battles now, Princess,” the man said withsome excitement. “There’s been a cease fire!”The three before the screen were clearly nonplussed by this.They exchanged wondering looks.“What do you mean, Commodore?” Leia asked forcefully.“I mean that since one hour ago we’ve had an unconditionalcease fire. The Empire asked for it. We accepted. All fighting hasstopped!”As the full import of his words sank in, Luke ’s face took on astricken expression.“One hour ago!” he murmured.20

THE HEART OF THE JEDILeia’s own expression remained guarded at the news. Hanlooked mainly just surprised.“The Imperials asked for it,” he exclaimed. “Well, I’ll be!”“Mon Mothma urgently requests that you return to the newinterim base immediately, Princess,” Nuran went on. “Plans must bemade quickly. You can get the details then.” she responded briskly.“I understand, Commodore. Tell her we’re on our way.”He nodded and his image faded from the screen. Leia looked toHan.“How long until we can be away?” she asked him.“I don’t know yet. They’re checking on the engine damage. AndI’ve gotta get a prize crew aboard.”“Well, if you can’t do it quickly, I’m not sure we can take thetime,” she said. “It’s more urgent I get back.”“It can’t be so urgent that I leave a Star Destroyer for theEmpire to salvage,” he replied reasoningly.“But, if there’s going to be peace,” she countered, “will it matteranymore?”“You ain’t any surer of that then I am, Sweetheart,” hereturned. “Besides, either way this thing’s worth a big chunk ofcredits.”Leia sighed. “I’d hoped the mercenary was all gone from yoursoul.”“Once a scoundrel, always a scoundrel,” he said, giving her awink. He bowed and waved invitingly toward the doorway, “So, ifyou’re in a hurry, come help me get things moving.”“All right,” Leia acceded grudgingly.21

STAR WARSThe two started away toward the bridge door at a quick pace,Chewbacca fell in behind. As they walked, she continued in anauthoritative tone.“I’ll go back to our ship to arrange for departure. You see tothings here as fast as you can. Remember, we need to ”Her voice faded as they passed off the bridge. So absorbed withtheir new concerns were they that none noticed Luke Skywalker hadremained behind.Still clearly much affected by the new revelation, the youngman stood alone, looking about him once again at the many dead. Inhis expression showed an even more intense regret than before, agreater pain that cane from deep within, gripping and wringing himtight.He shook his head and muttered in a voice filled with bothsorrow and chagrin:“Just one hour ago. One hour! If we’d only known!”The monolithic, triangular slab of an Imperial Super StarDestroyer sailed in menacing grandeur above the glowing curve of theplanet Scalar below.On either side of it glided the forms of half a dozen Imperia lclass Star Destroyers, seeming dwarfed now in comparison with thecommand ship.From the opened bay in the belly of the big ship a tri-winged,Lambda class shuttlecraft suddenly dropped. Its side wings unfurledswiftly and it soared away, sweeping down in a lazy spiral toward thesurface of the planet.As it drew nearer the surface, piercing through grey -whitelayers of cloud, the outlines of a vast city laid out there came into22

THE HEART OF THE JEDIview. It was a modern but stark looking metropolis . One might havemistaken it for Coruscant, save that nearly all of the buildings were ofutilitarian design with dark glass and dull metals. They were laid outwith a severe symmetry, rippling out in precisely spaced concentricrings from a round hub.As details of the place began to show more clearly, the natureof individual buildings could be discerned, most especially of the onestructure that thrust up from the city’s core and loomed over it in amost domineering way. This one was the joint Imperial HighCommand Headquarters for the Regional Sector known as Kasserine.The building began as a thick, square pedestal tapering instages as it towered skyward to over five hundred stories in height.Atop this pedestal, as if some monstrous metal blossom fixed on itsrigid stem, perched a sharp-edged and massive pentagon. Its five flatsides were striped with the lights from two score more stories ofwindows, making the whole soaring building nearly a mile high.The shuttle angled down and across the city toward it,overbearingly forcing a patrolling flight of smaller TIE fighters toscatter like a ruptured flock of birds to avoid its path. It slowed anddropped in toward the huge structure’s roof. Here, shielded turbolaserbatteries on each of the five sides surrounded a central landing area.There was a great deal of rather frenzied activity on and aboutthe area at the moment. More shuttles, TIE fighters and other smallcraft were moving about so thickly as to appear to be near -hazards toeach other. Some few of them were landing, but the vast majority weredeparting, and with what looked like a very good deal of haste.The arriving shuttle from the command ship found its wayskillfully down through this confusing swarm of craft. It hovered a23

STAR WARSmoment while its wings lifted to landing configuration, then settledsoftly to a light-ringed landing pad.The stomach of the ship cracked open as its long loading rampdropped to touch the roof. Down the slanting runway from insideimmediately marched four white-armored stormtroopers, taking uppositions at either side of the base, weapons held at present arms.Behind them, four other figures then started down.Three were in the dark uniforms of the Imperial Command.Two young officers of a smug and thin-lipped look preceded asomewhat older man, clearly their superior.He was a most imposing figure, tall and spare, long limbed andramrod straight, head held proudly erect and commandingly poised.He moved down the ramp with the purposeful stride of one in full,unquestioned control.In the rear walked a fourth figure that could most loosely bedubbed a man. This small and most curious-looking being was manshaped generally, gawky and cadaverous of build, with skin drawntight across a death’s head face. He was quite hairless and had aneerie, blue-white translucence to his flesh, the veins beneath thesurface showing as a purplish network, pulsing with the coursing ofhis blood.Most of this somewhat repulsive form was visible as he woreonly a turban-like headdress and baggy loincloth even in the chil l, stiffbreeze at that high altitude. This made quite conspicuous the hazy,softly glowing, violet mass of the heart throbbing deep within hisbreast.As the four reached the ramp’s base, the tall man pulled up,the others stopping behind him. He stood looking around him at thelanding deck. His lean, strong featured face was drawn in a hard24

THE HEART OF THE JEDIfrown of disapproval. The intense grey eyes set wide on either side ofan emphatic hook of nose narrowed in displeasure as they took in thescene.About him on the deck all was near chaos. Scores of peoplewere scurrying around, hurriedly readying ships, carrying cargoes ofsupplies and equipment and even furniture to load. The majority wereobviously abandoning the tower in some haste, and apparently takinganything movable along with them. Most were civilians, dressed in theplain and drab colored garb of Imperial bureaucrats.A few wore the cloaks and colored sashes of politicos with somerank.The tall officer’s gaze fell upon a chubby and red-facedsupervisor struggling to cope with a herd of anxious, booty -laden folkwho crowded about him. The harried official had seemingly taken nonote of the new arrivals.Signaling the rest to follow, the officer strode across to him. Hestood waiting to be noticed, but the busy supervisor ignored him. Hecleared his throat for attention, but the other stayed preoccupied,giving out directions while checking a computerized manifesto in hishands.The officer coughed again, more aggressively.This time the rotund little man gave a great sigh ofexasperation and looked around to him.“Yes?” he said in a prim, most put out way, “and just what youwant?”“I am High Admiral Tharkus,” the tall man said, as if thatalone should certainly be enough.It wasn’t. “Tharkus?” the unimpressed supervisor saidconsulting his list. “I wasn’t informed you’d be arriving now.”25

STAR WARS“You should have been,” the High Admiral said curtly, lookingthe man up and down. “And who are you?”“I’m Chief Dockmaster Ptomel,” said the other with an air ofmuch self-importance, “Now, I’m quite busy,” he added dismissingly.“You must notice there’s a great deal of confusion here. All the panicsince the Emperor’s death, and ”Tharkus brusquely cut him off. “That will end right now,Dockmaster! You will see that no more craft depart this base withoutpermission of the High Command.”The man gave a laugh at that. He waved about him at thecolossal bedlam. “Can you see this? Do you really expect me to stop it? ”“I do,” Tharkus said domineeringly. “It’s my order.”Ptomel’s red face grew redder, “And just who are you to givethat order?” he said indignantly. “These are mostly civilian peoplehere. Members of the Emperor’s government, not of your military. Andsome of them with a bit of their own rank, as well. You have noauthority over them. Especially now,” he added contemptuously, “withthe dismal showing you’ve made defending us.”From the hostile looks, agreeing nods and dark mutterings inthose crowded around and watching this exchange, it was clear therotund supervisor had their strong sympathy.High Admiral Tharkus glanced around at them, then back tothe little man.“So you refuse to obey me?” he challenged forcefully.“Yes, I do.” Ptomel said, drawing up to the full of his height andmeeting the still higher gaze defiantly.In response, the High Admiral stepped back, gesturing at thestrange, clear-skinned being as he moved behind him. “See to it,” hesnapped.26

THE HEART OF THE JEDIThe being nodded. His violet heart pulsed brighter. His bodywas instantly enveloped in a sapphire glow as his pre ternaturalmetabolism swiftly absorbed vast quantities of ambient energy fromthe atmosphere, transforming it into matter. The cocoon of lightobscuring his image as his figure swelled in moments to a giant size.Just as instantly the light faded, revealin g a monstrous,amphibious-like being where the man had been.The green-skinned thing squatted on broad haunches, a flatand wide mouthed head with bulging eyes looming two stories abovethem on a thick, deeply puckered neck.As the dockmaster stared in astonishment, the head shotforward, the neck stretching far out in rubbery ease. The mouth gapedopen. The man screamed.It was over in an eye blink.The thing had seized and swallowed Ptomel in one gulp; thehead had shrunk back onto the body. The only sign left of his chubbyform was a round, still wiggling lump in the monster’s neck. Butanother big swallow quickly pushed that down out of sight.The crowd around stood flabbergasted, frozen in shock.Tharkus swept a frigid gaze around at them.“No one refuses to obey me more than once,” he slowly,pointedly told them.Coolly, the High Admiral looked to his officers.“Lieutenant Voss,” he said to one, “you and the troopers stayhere and see my order is obeyed.” He nodded toward the creature.“Kastor will stay and help you as well.”At this the creature’s slavering mouth stretched upwa

reserved. This PD F version has been produced for fans free of charge, and is not available for retail sale or distribution. No copyright infringement is intended or implied. Star Wars: The Heart of the Jedi was originally completed on June 23, 1992. This new edition was completed on December 2, 2015, and was published in eight monthly .